Senators push bill to boost higher education

Senators Joel Villanueva (left) and Sherwin Gatchalian. —PRIB file photos

MANILA, Philippines — A bill seeking to allow Filipinos with dual citizenship to join public higher education institutions (HEIs) as faculty, researchers, or administrators has been filed in the Senate.

Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Joel Villanueva jointly filed Senate Bill No. 2733, which seeks to amend Republic Act No. 9255, or the Citizenship Retention and Re-Acquisition Act of 2003, and allow dual-citizen individuals to be appointed as researchers, faculty or administrators of public HEIs without renouncing a previous oath of allegiance to another country.

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Under RA 9255, those who retain or re-acquire their Philippine citizenship can be appointed to public office, provided that they swear an oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines and renounce a prior oath of allegiance to another country.

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“Removing this restriction will create a pool of internationally competitive faculty members, he said, adding that it will help address issues on the global ranking of public HEIs and declining inbound faculty,” Gatchalian said in a statement.

The lawmakers cited a survey conducted by the Commission on Higher Education International Affairs Services on the “Internationalization Scoping for Philippine Higher Education Sector,” which showed that in 2017, the number of outbound faculty was over twice the number of inbound faculty.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings use the international faculty ratio as one of the criteria for the assessment and ranking of universities.